The Search for New Meaning

1. The Search for New Meaning What happens when small-scale societies are drawn into a larger, more complex world? What happens to their religion? Does it cease to exist, or does it adapt to survive?

2. Change • Most religious practices will be conservative • A society’s belief system is often considered to be ancient and sacred. • Rituals, the repetition of the same, ensures that religious meaning is preserved. • Change is not often welcomed, but is necessary for a religious system to survive…

3. Mechanisms for Change Nothing in this world is stagnant. Everything changes in one way or another. Think of the most permanent thing you can. Perhaps a mountain? The fact that humans breathe oxygen? The Sun? • In regards to culture, there are a few factors we can label as gentle agents of change… • Discovery: A new awareness of something that exists in the environment • Invention: When a person, using the technology at hand, comes up with a solution to a particular problem. • Diffusion: The apparent movement of cultural traits from one society to another. When two groups, such as those within a culture area, face similar problems, solutions that are developed in one group through discovery and invention might be adopted by the other. • Stimulus Diffusion: A new trait invented by a culture based upon a similar trait introduced by a neighboring culture.

4. There are also more intense agents of change, change that comes from economic/political/social control of one society over another… Acculturation: The process whereby a culture received traits from a dominant society. When two technologically unequal societies come into contact with each other, the subordinate society will experience change as traits are accepted from the dominant society. (Often at a rate that is too rapid to properly integrate the traits into the culture.) Assimilation: A condition whereby a dominated culture has changed so much because of outside influences that it ceases to have its own distinct identity. Ex: Many Native American groups Syncretism: A fusing of traits from two cultures to form something new and yet permitting the retention of the old by subsuming the old into a new form. Ex: Sarapis, Trobriand Cricket, The influence of “Western” culture (Coke, McDonald’s, Starbucks, Hollywood, etc.) Mechanisms for Change cont.

5. Haitian Vodou An example of syncretism • Vodou is a concept often misunderstood in Western culture and conjures up images of evil, sorcery, dolls w/ pins, etc. • Ex: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9SSUQxGjZZ4 (Godsmack: Vodoo) • Arose in Haiti during the first half of the 19th century (~1804-1860) centered around the symbols of music, art and dance. • Chromolithographs: Color printed posters of the saints used by early priests who attempted to bring Christianity to Haitian slaves. Seen as symbolic of West African deities. • Mainly Yoruba(with some Fon, Kongo) beliefs of West Africa combined with Christian elements to form Vodou. • Vodou means “spirit” or “deity” in the Fon language. • Pantheon of deities called Lwaand are very similar to the Yoruba orisha that we have previously studied. 2 important sub-groups of Lwa: The Rada nanchon which are similar to the Yoruba gods, and the Petwo nanchon, aggressive/assertive gods born out of the slave experience. • Legba, or Papa Legba is the first Lwa to be contacted when trying to breach the threshold between the human and supernatural worlds. Same function as the Yoruba Orisha Esu-Elegba, but not so much of a trickster, rather seen as a more compassionate figure, hence the “Papa.” Papa Legba is often syncretised with the Catholic St. Peter (shown above). • Fon, Kongo and Yoruba beliefs of West Africa combine with Christian elements to form Vodou. • Vodou means “spirit” or “deity” in the Fon language. • Haiti: • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpeLdXeIbwA&feature=related • Brooklyn and the diaspora (the movement of a population out of their homeland) • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zYWFL3Bj2LU&feature=related • Have pg. 247 (Table 11.1) open as a references while watching the above. Pay attention to mentions of “Legba” and “Gede”. The Lwa here are called spirits. Look for the Vede (sign) for Papa Legba (symbol shown here on the right).

6. Santeria • Similar to Vodou. Developed in Cuba combining mostly Yoruba beliefs with Roman Catholicism. • Deities are, as in Yoruba religion, referred to as Orisha • “Santeria” name originally stemmed from a perceived over-concentration on the Saints (“San”). Proper name for the religion is Regla de Ocha or “Rule of the Orisha. • Similar to Vodou practitioners who refer to their religion as “serving the spirits” • Animal sacrifice is used in ritual, which has caused conflict between religious freedom and animal rights